Quite Underwhelmed

While my gparents were down for Christmas, they wanted to try Joe’s Diner. Joe’s Diner has been in Naples for as long as I can remember however, prior to their visit, I had never tried it. The reason? Well, there are plenty of restaurant locations in Naples I have never been too. Joe’s Diner fit into the yes-I-can-afford-it-but-no-I-have-no-reason-to-visit category. I just drove past it from time and time and didn’t think much of it. However, over Christmas, we ventured in and gave it a while. Known for their breakfast & burgers, I ordered neither and left feeling Quite Underwhelmed.

We arrived at Joe’s Dinner at 12:00pm on a Saturday for lunch. Now, my body is used to eating lunch at 1:00pm and I was just really not all too hungry. We were also planning on going to Ale House for dinner – where I knew I would chow down – so, I figured I would order something light for lunch. I decided to go with the House Salad with a Piece of Grilled Chicken. I found their menu to be a bit on the confusing side and it actually took me longer than I would have figured to make a choice. Once I had decided, I stuck with it. The salad would be served with a Mini-Muffin. The board posted that the muffin of the day was Chocolate Chip…that was the only muffin mentioned.

My salad arrived and it seemed to be a good size. The color of the chicken was a little bit on the light side but, I didn’t think much of it. That was, until I ate it. This chicken tasted funky. Like really funky. Coming from the person who ate an entire frozen pizza – after saying the same thing – I was a little disturbed. But, shocker, I ate it anyways. I obviously did not like the flavor of the chicken at all. Plus, it was so so so so so salty. The rest of the day, I was gulping down water like it was going out of business. The rest of the salad was fine. Really, just fine. There was nothing exciting about it at all. The best thing was, it was fresh. An upgrade from the chicken.

As for my muffin, I received a banana nut muffin. This confused me a bit as I was expecting a chocolate chip muffin. No where did I see mention of banana nut muffins. Well, that is probably because it was old. This muffin was pretty gross. It was stale, dry and lacking much flavor. I could tell it was banana nut flavored however, it was nothing to write home about. I would have rather had to pay for a fresh muffin then receive this old muffin for free. I mean, if you are known for your breakfast, then muffins should fall in that realm…right?

The rest of my family said their meals were fine but, I really don’t think that anyone was overly impressed. While the menu is quite large, and there are many offerings, I see no reason why I would ever want to go back. I will say that the service was great – the waitress was attentive & quite friendly. But, service alone is no reason to visit a restaurant. I guess I know now why I never visited Joe’s Diner before. Perhaps it was a premonition. Whatever it may be, I know I will not be visiting again. Plain and simple, I was Quite Underwhelmed.